Teach me your language I teach you mine
- Thread starter fashionbutterfly
- Start date
Bluestar07 said:
Used to...but it's been ages ago, dunno if I can still manage decently...
(And anyway, it's quite useless; the normal way to extend a pizza base is much less "scenographic" - and still very effective; if you want I can post a quick "tutorial"...
)
Yay, me too! 
Btw, the most popular pizza here is the traditional "margherita", with only tomato and mozzarella-cheese
i'd really like that totorial Ok, here's the "tutorial" on cooking pizza 
First of all, you need some pizza base (we call it "pasta per pizza" - or "impasto per pizza"), which is made of flour, water, salt, baking soda (not sure this is the right translation for it...I mean some fresh "lievito di birra") - some add also a tiny bit of oil and eggs, but it's rarer. In Italy you can buy some ready-to-be-used base in almost every supermarket, or in bakeries.
Anyway, the right amount of base for a single pizza is around 150 grams.
I tried drawing an image with the mouse to explain how to extend the base (just remeber to help yourself with small quantities of flour while doing that, or the base will stick to the table)
1) this is the small "ball" of pizza base, as I said, around 150 grams;
2) you firstly squeeze it with your palms, shaping it in a disc-like form with your fingers, extending it until it has a diameter of around 15 cms., and still quite thick (about 1 cm.);
3) then you move it to the margin of the table, with half of it (or even only 1/3) on the table, and the rest free to fall off the margin; then using your hands you give it a circular movement, all while slightly extending the upper part of the "disc" with your hands, moving them towards the center of the table, in diverging directions (a bit less than 90°); and the gravity will help extending the base for you effortlessly (believe me, it's much easier to do it than it is to explain it...)
4) and in a few seconds you have the fully extended base (with a diameter of around 30 cms., only few mms. thick) ready to be covered with toppings (just remember to leave a margin of around 2 cms., or the toppings will fall off the pizza onto the oven's basement and it will burn, making loads of smoke and stinking)
When you'll have finished putting the toppings on the base, your pizza is ready to go in the oven. Taking it up with the pizza-shovel is probably the most difficult thing for first-time pizza-cookers, as a mistake here will ruin everything (if you break the base the tomato sauce will drip onto the oven and the base will stick to it, burning), but if you put a bit of flour on the shovel, and if there's still a bit of flour (no too much, or it will also burn) below the base, then it will be easier to take it on the shovel in a quick movement.
And then you put it in a proper oven (stone basement, around 350° C) and you cook it for 5 minutes, checking with the tip of the shovel that the lower side of the base doesn't overcook.
And it's ready to eat!
First of all, you need some pizza base (we call it "pasta per pizza" - or "impasto per pizza"), which is made of flour, water, salt, baking soda (not sure this is the right translation for it...I mean some fresh "lievito di birra") - some add also a tiny bit of oil and eggs, but it's rarer. In Italy you can buy some ready-to-be-used base in almost every supermarket, or in bakeries.
Anyway, the right amount of base for a single pizza is around 150 grams.
I tried drawing an image with the mouse to explain how to extend the base
(just remeber to help yourself with small quantities of flour while doing that, or the base will stick to the table)1) this is the small "ball" of pizza base, as I said, around 150 grams;
2) you firstly squeeze it with your palms, shaping it in a disc-like form with your fingers, extending it until it has a diameter of around 15 cms., and still quite thick (about 1 cm.);
3) then you move it to the margin of the table, with half of it (or even only 1/3) on the table, and the rest free to fall off the margin; then using your hands you give it a circular movement, all while slightly extending the upper part of the "disc" with your hands, moving them towards the center of the table, in diverging directions (a bit less than 90°); and the gravity will help extending the base for you effortlessly (believe me, it's much easier to do it than it is to explain it...
)4) and in a few seconds you have the fully extended base (with a diameter of around 30 cms., only few mms. thick) ready to be covered with toppings (just remember to leave a margin of around 2 cms., or the toppings will fall off the pizza onto the oven's basement and it will burn, making loads of smoke and stinking)
When you'll have finished putting the toppings on the base, your pizza is ready to go in the oven. Taking it up with the pizza-shovel is probably the most difficult thing for first-time pizza-cookers, as a mistake here will ruin everything (if you break the base the tomato sauce will drip onto the oven and the base will stick to it, burning), but if you put a bit of flour on the shovel, and if there's still a bit of flour (no too much, or it will also burn) below the base, then it will be easier to take it on the shovel in a quick movement.
And then you put it in a proper oven (stone basement, around 350° C) and you cook it for 5 minutes, checking with the tip of the shovel that the lower side of the base doesn't overcook.
And it's ready to eat!
Royal-Galliano
völlig losgelöst
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2005
- Messages
- 16,061
- Reaction score
- 713
Wow that looks so perfect Pasha! I have to try it one day! Or rather not... 
Bluestar07
Active Member
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2004
- Messages
- 4,556
- Reaction score
- 0
Pasha you're amazing!!! Fluent in languages, culinary skills ... is there anything you don't do?
If I ever go to Italy I'll look you up for a pizza making demo!
If I ever go to Italy I'll look you up for a pizza making demo!
That is
Royal-Galliano
völlig losgelöst
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2005
- Messages
- 16,061
- Reaction score
- 713
If there is a tFS God, Pasha has to be his double 
^ 
ok, Berlusconi spent 5 years saying he was like Napoleon and Jesus Christ, but luckily not all italians are ready for the straitjacket... so don't exaggerate...
ok, Berlusconi spent 5 years saying he was like Napoleon and Jesus Christ, but luckily not all italians are ready for the straitjacket... so don't exaggerate...
Last edited by a moderator:
Royal-Galliano
völlig losgelöst
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2005
- Messages
- 16,061
- Reaction score
- 713
I said DOUBLE, not GOD 
Royal-Galliano
völlig losgelöst
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2005
- Messages
- 16,061
- Reaction score
- 713
Ok ok I am shutting up now 
Double Double! LOL
